Stig-Helmer and Ole Bramserud on a trip to the Canary Islands for Christmas.
What was once the "Island of Calm" is now on the verge of collapse. Multiple alarm bells are starting to ring. Is this model of tourism sustainable? Could Mallorca become a reference for so many other places suffering from the same problem?
At the height of the summer tourist season, the Spanish beach town Magaluf turns into a hellscape of the low-cost travel industry. For eight weeks every year, over one million mostly British vacationers ride an alcohol-soaked tide of public urination, fisticuffs and ambulance sirens for recreation. Instead of assembling a clip-reel of "balconing," when drunk idiots jump into hotel pools from their balconies, filmmaker Miguel Ángel Blanca crafts a far deeper and atmospheric look at a place where visitors and locals alike are driven by pleasure. Long-time resident Maria has little time left, so she takes in a seasonal lodger who listens to her relive her glory days. An enterprising real estate agent peddles an extravagant development, while a young gay man drifts without any plans beyond robbing a tourist for kicks. Part ghost story, part foreboding parable, this is a stylish and vivid impression of people and a place dreaming of escape. Myrocia Watamaniuk (Hot Docs)
Bye Bye Barcelona is a documentary about a city and its relation to tourism , on the difficult coexistence between Barcelona the city and Barcelona the tourist destination
At the south tip of Gran Canaria, the sun is always shining. Resorts warmly captures the easy and complicated lives of 6 tourists that never left their holiday. A visual tour of the pastel-coloured holiday destination of Gran Canaria, a haven for millions of tourists – and for people fleeing more than just rain and cold. The paradoxes of tourism meet the harsh realities of those who live in paradise all year round.